Standing Weekly Crawfish Orders

Most crawfish gets sold one load at a time. That works until the week the catch is short and the phone stops getting answered — and a kitchen that put crawfish on the menu has a problem that no amount of calling around on a Thursday will fix.

A standing order is the other way to buy. You take a delivery day on one of our routes, and we plan the week around the accounts we know are buying. The crawfish comes off our own ponds and farm alliances across Louisiana, through our own plant in Plaucheville, on our own refrigerated trucks — so the thing that usually breaks a supply relationship, a middleman with nothing at stake, isn’t in it.

It doesn’t mean committing to one number for the season. Nobody buys the same volume in February that they buy in May — ten sacks a day early can be twenty at the peak, and that’s how the season is supposed to go. What we’re after is consistency and a phone call when it changes, so we can hit your target every time instead of guessing at it.

What a standing order gets you

• A route day you can plan around

  Each market has its own delivery day. Once you're on the route, your drop lands the same day each week, so prep, staffing, and the menu can be set against it.

• A cutoff that bends when your week does

  We ask for orders by noon the day before, and we'll take them to 5 p.m. when we can rather than lose a sale to a clock. A standing order is already on the books either way, which puts it early in the queue when supply is short.

• Volume that moves with your season

  Ten sacks a day in February can be twenty by May. Tell us as it changes and we build it into the week — you're not locked into one number.

• One standard, every sack

  Washed, hand-sorted, and re-sacked at our plant, whichever pond it started in — with size grading when seasonal supply allows.

How much is enough?

We don’t publish a minimum, and that’s deliberate. What decides whether a load works is the price per pound against the distance — not a sack count. A standing order on a route we already run can work at a volume that would never justify a special trip, and a big one-off order into a market we don’t serve might not work at all. We run a range of truck sizes for the same reason: the right truck for the drop keeps smaller standing orders worth running.

So the useful thing to do is tell us the city and roughly what you need each week. You’ll get a straight answer on the call — including if the answer is that it doesn’t work yet, and what would change that.

Common questions

Can you supply 50 sacks of live crawfish every week?

Yes — that's a standing order, and it's the kind of account our routes are built around. We run our own refrigerated fleet out of Plaucheville, Louisiana, in a range of truck sizes that move hundreds of sacks on a run, so a weekly 50-sack drop rides a route we're already running rather than needing a special trip. Call 30-CRAWFISH (302-729-3474) and we'll set the volume, the delivery day, and what happens in a short week before your first load.

Is there a minimum order for a standing weekly delivery?

There's no published minimum. What makes a load work is the price per pound against the distance, not a sack count, so a smaller standing order on an existing route can work where a bigger one-off order doesn't. Tell us the volume you're thinking and the city, and we'll tell you straight away whether it works.

When do I need to place the order?

We ask for orders by noon the day before delivery, because that's when the load gets planned. Real kitchens don't always know by noon, so we take orders up to 5 p.m. and work them in where we can — we'd rather find a way to fill an order than lose the sale to a clock. Earlier is still better than later: when supply is short we fill in the order the orders came in.

What happens when the catch is short?

Crawfish is a live commodity and some weeks come up short — any supplier who tells you otherwise is guessing. We plan the week's volume around the accounts buying on a regular cadence, and within that we fill in the order the orders came in, so a standing order helps twice: it's the cadence we plan against, and it's on the books before the week starts. You're billed for what's delivered, and if we can't fill a load you hear it from us before the truck rolls, not when it arrives.

What if something's wrong with a load?

It's rare — every sack is washed and hand-sorted before it ships. But crawfish is a live commodity, so if something isn't right, call us. We work with our customers in good faith to make it right and keep the next delivery on track.

Do I get the same delivery day every week?

That's the point of a standing order. Each market has its own route day, so once you're on it your drop lands on the same day each week and your kitchen can plan the prep and the menu around it. Call 30-CRAWFISH (302-729-3474) for the route day in your city.

How does pricing work on a recurring order?

Wholesale crawfish is priced against a farm-gate market that resets weekly, so there's no fixed list price for the season — a quote holds for that week's window unless the market itself moves mid-week, which happens and is outside anyone's control. When the farm-gate market jumps, every supplier's price moves with it. What a standing order does buy you is easier pricing: known volume on a set day is simpler to quote than a one-off load, because both sides can plan. Our guide to how wholesale crawfish pricing works walks through what moves the number.

How far ahead do I need to set up a standing order?

Before the season, if you can. Live and boiled crawfish run roughly January through July, and the routes fill as the season builds, so the buyers who call in the autumn and early winter are the ones already on a route when the volume arrives. Frozen tail meat is available year-round, independent of the live season.

Can I change the volume week to week?

Yes — expect to. Volume climbs as the season builds and nobody buys in February what they buy in May, so a standing order is a cadence, not a fixed number you're locked into. Demand moves for other reasons too — a festival weekend, a slow week, a new location — and we'd rather build the change into the week than have you come up short or buy elsewhere. Tell us as early as you can and we'll work it in. Cancelling at the last minute is a different thing: once your load is planned we've turned down the chance to sell that product to someone else, so late cancellations aren't something we take as routine. If something genuinely goes wrong, call us and we'll work it out.

What do you need from me to get started?

The city and delivery address, the volume you want each week, which product — live, boiled, or tail meat — and the day that suits your kitchen. That's enough for a quote. Call 30-CRAWFISH (302-729-3474) or send it through the contact form and we'll come back to you.

Not sure a route reaches you yet? See where we deliver, or ask us to open your market. Running your own trucks? Load at our dock. Want to know what moves the price? Read how wholesale pricing works.